Farmers Helping Farmers

We are re-releasing our very first Farmers Helping Farmers podcast episode with former VicNoTill president and sixth generation Lockington farmer Grant Sims. This conversationwith Dan Fox was recorded way back in 2022 is our most highly listened to episode of all time. Grant joined the VicNoTill board in 2015 and was president until 2020. Landline Australia featured Grant and the benefits of regen...

Farmers Helping Farmers, The Podcast is dropping into your ears with a paddock chat between VicNoTill president Michael Gooden and board member James Manning around how they're managing budgets, future plans and other farm activities during the current fuel and fertiliser shortage. James manages 'Northwood Park' at Seymour for one of three farms in a 10,000 acre thoroughbred stud owned...

April 2026: Life is full of challenges, especially in farming, and the global situation can be a heavy weight. It feels like the perfect time to re-release this encore conversation with UK farmer Tim Parton. If you want to be inspired, Tim is your man. We’re wanting to remind everyone that Farmers are Heroes, nobody else can do what we do. Since this episode was recorded in 2023, Tim has faced eve...

In 2017, a Sydney TedX crowd went wild when farmer turned agronomist Guy Webb stood on stage to pitch his idea for using fungus to capture carbon in the atmosphere and plant it back into the ground to combat the lack of carbon in Australian soils. The applause was thunderous and what followed has been almost a decade of intensive research into developing a technology that provides a return on inve...

VicNoTill is proud to re-release what was our second episode of Farmers Helping Farmers The Podcast for those who may have missed it! Dan Fox sat down with Graeme Sait during VicNoTill's 2022 annual conference Carbon Power to record what continues to be one of our most popular episodes On Why Nutrition Rules . Graeme knows so much about growing nutritious food and we’ve only crammed in a tiny...

VicNoTill president Michael Gooden describes stepping intothe paddocks of broadacre cropping farmer Brendan 'Patto' Pattison at Marrar NSW, as like stepping 10-15 years into the future and seeing what broadacre cropping systems have the potential to become. Michael sits in the tractor, ute and walks through Patto's paddocks for this Farmers Helping Farmers episode that brings real farm life to you...

Back in 2023, third generation Victorian farmer Tom Briggs candidly shared the things that went right, and wrong, when he returned home to his family farm with a head full of new ideas of how to shift into a more regenerative farming system. Since that time a large number of farmers have contacted VicNoTill to say how much they appreciated and learnt from this episode. Tom joined the VicNoTill boa...

In this podcast episode, Angus Ingram catches up with Don Piper. Don is a mixed farmer from Violet Town in Victoria who is typical of farmers who want to create a more resilient system that builds up their soils for future success, in that he believed he was the exception and could change everything all at once. He learnt pretty quickly he needed to build his 'on ramp and off ramp' that we covered...

In this ENCORE episode you'll get an insight into what you can expect at the VicNoTill annual conference on September 2 and 3 at Moama, NSW when you meet our dinner guest speaker Will Bignell. VicNoTill board members met Will last year at the Grounded Festival in Tasmania, and couldn't wait to get him over to the mainland to share his story. Limited tickets to the conference are still avai...

NSW broadacre cropping farmer Dan Fox has a fascination for understanding the intricacies of how plants and soils function, and his conversation with Omnia research and development manager Andrew Doecke takes him into some deep rabbit holes on nutrition, chemistry and science. Dan is in his element in this sponsor episode in piecing together how bio-stimulants fit into broadacre cropping systems....

“If you have a decline in yield as a result of a transition to regenerative ag, it is not a result of regenerative ag, it is the result of poor agronomic management. Accepting a yield loss is a choice. Don’t say it’s a result of regenerative ag because it’s not, and I will die on this hill.” It is a strong start to this Farmers Helping Farmers special episode with John Kempf – a true visionary in...

Applications are open for the Integrity Soils CREATE program with Nicole Masters which is being run in Australia for the first time. The on-farm intensive for CREATE Australia will be on the Victorian regenerative farm of VicNoTill board member Callum Lawson in September 2025. In this re-released podcast episode from 2024, Callum shares how his farming journey has evolved since discovering holisti...

Nicole, a global agro-ecologist, educator and systems thinker, has been working with VicNoTill to share knowledge about regenerative ag for more than a decade. In this episode, current president Michael Gooden talks to Nicole about how regenerative ag is a system, not an input and how people's awareness has exploded about the critical role healthy soils play in our lives. For Nicole, regenerat...

Agricultural investment manager and VicNoTill board member Angus Ingram steps in as guest host for this fast-paced, action-packed interview with Tasmanian farmer and ag scientist Will Bignell. Angus pulled Will aside after hearing him speak at the Matthew Evans Grounded Festival in southern Tasmania in December 2024. Will is a 7th generation farmer and father of three boys from Bothwell in Tasmani...

When farmers speak about diversity being one of the hallmarks of a resilient farming system, Stacey Curcio asks them to consider the diversity within their diets and the way they move to keep their body’s cells and microbes thriving. Stacey is a Naturopath at Cultivating Wellness with a Masters of Human Nutrition and was guest speaker at VicNoTill's Food for Thought conference in 2024. She links h...

Fifth generation broadacre farmer and agronomist Keiran Knight grew up on an irrigation, cotton, sheep, cattle and cereal farm between Walgett and Narrabri in NSW. She married her next door neighbour John and they still farm the land their previous generations settled in 1891. While working as an agronomist and with a young family, Keiran became increasingly concerned about the amount of fertilise...

In the FARMERS HELPING FARMERS PODCAST Episode 21, Dan Fox sits down with WA farmer Rob Hetherington who is seeing a lifetime of soil study come to fruition on the Lake King farm he runs with his wife Judi and son Daniel, Kate and family. This is a fascinating and indepth discussion with an experienced farmer and Wheatbelt NRM Soil Health Champion who was a guest speaker at VicNoTill's 2024 Fo...

Australian families have grown up eating their fair share of Kentish potatoes, but have we ever considered the story behind the pioneering family who brought this staple ingredient to our tables? Michael Gooden sits down with third generation potato grower Nic Kentish, who shares the ups and downs, soil health and life lessons from growing the humble potato. From the drought which preceded Ash Wed...

VicNoTill is at the forefront of change in Australian agriculture, and for the past three years fifth generation Marrar farmer Dan Fox has been president of this farmers helping farmers organisation. Dan sits down with new president Michael Gooden to share how leading change in Australian agriculture has helped him from both a practical and personal perspective. Soil health has been a progressive...

VicNoTill farmers were rapt to welcome food writer, farmer, television broadcaster and chef Matthew Evans to the Food for Thought Conference in Wagga Wagga. After Matthew walked around the paddocks, stood in a soil pit and sampled the beef grown on the cattle stud of VicNoTill’s Michael Gooden, they sat down to talk about the links between healthy soils, food and people. Matthew shares how he went...

Joel Williams spent several days with VicNoTill at the 2024 Food for Thought conference in Wagga Wagga NSW. Tune into his insightful conversation with Riverina broadacre cropping farmer Dan Fox about the latest science and the on-ground change that is happening thanks to farmers like those in the VicNoTill network. With links to VicNoTill going back almost a decade, Joel was rapt to be at the conf...

VicNoTill board member Michael Gooden visits Jim Alexander on the Cootamundra farm where he lives with his wife Em and two young daughters to talk about his switch from commercial scale broadacre agronomy on the Liverpool Plains to permaculture to regenerative agriculture. Jim has made a major shift in the way he approaches life, as a result of his own farming experiences and through what he disco...

This is a conversation for farmers not to be missed! Allan Parker OAM was a crowd favourite at VicNoTill's conference Transition23 and captured the attention of the whole room within 10 seconds of starting his presentation. VicNoTill board member Michael Gooden catches up with Allan in Wagga Wagga during his 2024 Regional Brain Reset Tour to talk about succession planning, improving negotiatio...

When Victorian cattle farmer Callum Lawson went to a holistic grazing course, it turned the way he approached farming on its head. He came home from the first day feeling baffled about the way he was farming. What they were presenting about regenerative and holistic grazing concepts felt like common sense. This started him on a path of discovery, and the more research he did the more fascinated he...

Young farmer Jake Chandler has always had a deep connection with all things agricultural, and has experienced the landscape from many perspectives. The son of an Ag teacher, he worked as a jackaroo in the Northern Territory before studying environmental science at university then moved into a corporate career in the mining industry. After falling in love with and marrying Gemma Wilkinson from Youn...